Recently I was eating dinner out and noticed a conversation at the table near to me.  “The service here is terrible!  It’s been five minutes and our so-called waitress still hasn’t filled up my Coke!”

This is an amazing thing, that all it takes is an empty drink class to turn a person into a narcissist.  I have heard the same attitude come from people at Sunday church service because it’s so hot outside that the air conditioning in our facility struggles to keep it cooler than 75 degrees.  But sadly, I find this same manner quite alive in myself.

To a bruised and exhausted people, Jeremiah 12:5 says this:  “If you have run with the footmen and they have tired you out, then how will you compete with the horses?  If you fall down in a land of peace, how will you do in the thicket of the Jordan?”

The idea here is simple:  If my faith, my spiritual disposition, crumbles when the air conditioner breaks, what will I do if something significant tests me?  Remember, just a few decades ago, nobody in Augusta, GA had air conditioning.  Why does my world suddenly fall apart when I don’t have something that, just a few years ago, millions of people didn’t even know they needed?

This speaks to our consumer nature, to our focus on being served.  And it is poisonous to our faith.  A person that calls him or herself a Christian, wears a cross or a tattoo of one, and takes communion at Sunday service – this is a person that has committed to a lifelong identification with the One who was crucified.  It is a daily lifestyle of me not getting what I selfishly want, but instead learning how to serve God and man.  Such so-called Christians must learn what Jeremiah is talking about here.

In my family we call this “battle-ready mentality”.  I have four children, one of whom is disabled.  We have been through the hardest few years of our lives here recently.  Sometimes, as children do, mine fight over petty things.  I tell my kids of the soldier who is in formation, seconds away from storming the enemy camp.  The battle will be long.  In full combat gear head to toe, the command is given to attack.  But just then, this soldier notices that his ear is itchy. 

Is this a time to take off his helmet and scratch?  No!  Let’s not sacrifice the big picture for something so small and temporary.

Because the deal is, something much more trying may come along.  Learn to weather the relatively easy things with courage, and you’ll have something left so that you can still stand when a real trial presents itself.

C.S. Lewis says it this way:  “For this is what it means to be a king: to be first in every desperate attack and last in every desperate retreat, and when there’s hunger in the land, to wear finer clothes and laugh louder over a scantier meal than any man in your land.”

So it is with Coke, with air conditioning, with that person who took your space in the parking lot.  Maybe an attitude like this could even extend to a squabble with a spouse or neighbor.  Perhaps it is even possible to have a child who is dependent on a machine to eat, and still wear a smile?  Am I faking it?  No – I am preparing myself for the rough stuff of life, in which I intend to set my face to heaven, smile to the God I love, and bravely still believe.